globalisation paper 3 Flashcards
3.3c There are physical, political, economic and environmental regions why some locations remain largely ‘switched off’ from globalisation. (North Korea, Sahel countries)
Political -
North Korea is a hereditary autocracy ruled by Kim Jong-Un.
It’s run as a one-party system with a command economy communist country
Since 1955 it has followed the policy of ‘self-sufficiency’, minimising trade with other countries.
Emigration and foreign tourism by ordinary North Koreans is prohibited.
no access to internet or social media & no undersea data cable connections. This is because there is a personality cult where all successes are attributed to the wide leadership of Kim, and the internet and foreign travel would not maintain this.
NK had GNI per capita (PPP) US$ 4,600 in 2014 & medium human development (no official UN HDI figure).
However, it does trade with China, and set up the Kaesong Special Economic Zone, employing 52,000 people on the border with South Korea.
The Sahel Region in west Africa south of the Sahara Desert, e.g. Chad, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso…
They all have low GDI per capita - Chad $2100, Burkina Faso and Mali $1600, Niger $908.
And low HDI - Mali, 0.419; Burkina Faso, 0.402; Chad, 0.392; Niger, 0.348
borders divide/combine different ethnic/religious groups
Political parties based on ethnicity/religion lead to political instability with frequent civil wars = leads to poor long-term investment, slowing development. High corruption and uncertainty over contract enforcement makes it unattractive for FDI
economic- Sahel region
poor infrastructure, low literacy levels of the working age population make it unattractive for offshoring FDI
low income levels mean it lacks market size to attract retail outlet FDI. Few households can afford to purchase imported goods or engage in foreign tourism. Rural parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, especially the Sahel, are dominated by a subsistence farming economy with food produced to eat, not sell. places are also poor, and capacity to create connections is limited.
physical -
all 4 Sahel region countries are landlocked, rely on poor quality roads, and freedom of passage through neighbouring countries to access coastal ports. Resulting high transport costs make exports unattractive in foreign markets and repel FDI
The Himalaya mountain countries of Nepal, Bhutan and Chinese Tibet are isolated by terrain and winter snow, limiting their connections to the outside world - although tourism is changing this.
environmental-
sahel region countries have semi-arid climate with 200-400 mm of precipitation p.a, making agricultural exports reliant on a good rainy season.
Climate change is increasing aridity, leading to desertification as savanna gives way to desert = reduces land area available for producing agricultural exports.
Harsh desert climates, extreme polar cold and dense tropical forests all limit the development of transport and trade connections meaning continental interiors and polar regions are less well connected than coastal locations.
3.4b Some communities in developing countries have experienced major environmental problems (including air and water pollution, land degradation, over-exploitation of resources, and loss of biodiversity), which impact on people’s health and wellbeing.
In China (emerging country?):
Since 1980 China has undergone an industrial revolution similar to the one the UK underwent from 1770 to 1900.
Severe air pollution in cities like Beijing, where air pollution is regularly above the World Health Organisation safe limits.
Beijing’s six million cars and coal-burning power stations are the source of this pollution, close to 50% of the world’s coal is burnt in China.
Around 50% of China’s rivers and lakes and 40% of its groundwater is polluted - so much that it is unsafe to drink untreated.
Over 20% of China is subject to desertification and severe soil erosion, which can create major dust storms.
Combined with deforestation, desertification has forced many farmers off their land and into cities as the farmland has been over-exposed.
The WWF reported that in the last 40 years almost half of China’s land-based vertebrate species have been lost and biodiversity has suffered.
These environmental issues have human consequences as people live in the polluted environment. Air pollution in northern China has been estimated to reduce life expectancy by nearly five years.
3.5b International migration has increased in global hub cities and regions, deepening interdependence between regions (elite migration (Russian oligarchs to London) and mass low-wage economic migration (India to UAE or the Philippines to Saudi Arabia))
Migrants are especially attracted to global hub cities, those with an unusually high density of transport, business, political and cultural connections to the world, like London, Dubai or New York.
Different types of migrants are attracted:
HQs and offices of TNCs are located in global hubs, so high-paid professional workers (lawyers, stock-market traders, bankers) are attracted to these places and this creates huge wealth.
These global elite migrants often employ maids, drivers, nannies and gardeners = attracts low skilled migrants such as Indian and Bangladeshi migrants moving to the United Arab Emirates or Filipinos migrating to Saudi Arabia.
In 2015, 27% of the UAE’s population was from India.
Also low skilled, low wage migrants are used as construction workers for office and apartment blocks in global hubs.
Some cities (London, New York) attract exceptionally wealthy migrants e.g Russian oligarch billionaires (exceptionally wealthy business people) investing in property in London and living there some of the time. This happens so the oligarchs can easily send their children to the UK's elite private schools, and to move money out of Russia and invest it in London property.
3.6b In some locations, cultural erosion (loss of language, traditional food, music, clothes, social relations (loss of tribal lifestyles in Papua New Guinea) has resulted in changes to the built and natural environment (de-valuing local and larger-scale ecosystems).
Because no where is untouched by globalisation the number of people able to live isolated, traditional lifestyles is now very small. Arctic Inuit, tribal groups in Amazonia and Papua New Guinea and mountain people in Nepal now all experience tourism and exposure to global media. T
cultural erosion = their traditional food, music, language, clothes and social relations are all being eroded, or else being turned into a ‘show’ for tourists.
Korowai tribe, Papua, Indonesia
small tribe of 3000 people living in south-east Papua Indonesia.
They are hunter-gatherers, fishing in the Becking River and gathering sago from sago palm. They also practise shifting cultivation.
They had their first contact with the world in 1974 via expedition
Language - education in villages takes place in Indonesian
Some Korowai migrated to the town of Jayapura and their children speak don’t speak the Korowai language
Food - Sugary drinks, e.g. Coca-Cola, and alcohol
Korowai used to carry out cannibalism of captured members of other tribes as a criminal punishment - but this is thought to have been eradicated.
Music - Korowai music uses pig-skin drums. Radio and television introduced the global music culture.
Clothing - traditionally only wear a loincloth, however most people now wear shorts and t-shirts e.g Man U and Barcelona football shirts
Social Relations - Introduction of Christianity, by Dutch missionaries in the 1980s reduced the practice of polygamy and levirate marriage. Role of clan leader, traditionally the strongest warrior, diminished with a new elite system based on wealth.
Built environment - Korowai live in wooden longhouses with palm-thatched roofs raised on stilts 10m above the forest floor,
this has changed since 1987 when they were encouraged to move into villages in a clearing by the river. these house several hundred people with buildings constructed from clay bricks with corrugated iron roofs. contain schools and they are visited by health care workers.
Natural Environment - ecosystem de-valued as sustainable shifting-cultivation abandoned for sedentary village life.
Employment for logging companies or hunting of animals, e.g. tree kangaroo (now endangered), for sale as meat in villages or town.
Natural environment viewed as a resource for economic growth and higher income. Result is the over-exploitation of sago palms in the area around villages, deforestation for timber and agarwood exportation, and threatened species being overhunted to extinction.
3.7a Economic measures (both single and composite indices) of development (income per capita, economic sector balance) contrast with those focused on social development (Human Development Index (HDI), Gender Inequality Index (GII)) and environmental quality (air pollution indices)
Development: the improvement of quality of life (level of happiness, wellbeing or contentment, resulting from a way of living) of a country’s population. Quality of life includes social, economic, cultural, political, demographic and environmental aspects.
Globalisation has led to increased development in some countries, but has also widened the gap between rich and poor.
development gap can be between countries or within countries, e.g. in China’s coastal cities incomes per capita VS rural west.
Levels of development can be measured using single / composite indicators. vary in validity (how relevant), reliability (how accurate), and comprehensiveness (do they capture entirety?).
Single indicators (e.g. life expectancy, GDP per capita) measure one variable. They’re easy to use and understand, but may not give an accurate representation of development.
Composite indices combine more than one variable into a single measure. (HDI, GII)
Economic Indicators - these qualify well-being in terms of real income
Income per capita - mean income of a group of people
misleading where there is high income inequality, since very high incomes pull up
may be the best single indicator of development since higher income is often needed to raise aspects of QoL, e.g. health, education
Gross National Product (GNP) - measures output produced by country’s factors of production wherever located
Gross National Income (GNI) - GNP discounted for depreciation - lost value through machinery wear and tear
includes TNC profits and remittances sent home
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - measures the total output of goods and services produced in a country over a year
GDP per capita calculated by dividing GDP by total population of country
However, cost of living varies significantly between countries; same money income will buy different quantities of goods and services, generating a different QoL.
Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) GDP per capita has become a popular way of comparing economic development between countries because unlike GDP it takes into account the cost of living within countries.
Social Development
The Human Development Index (HDI) is the combination of life expectancy at birth, income and years in education.
combines economic development (GNI per capita (PPP)) and social development
expressed on a scale between 0 (lowest) and 1 (highest)
a few rich people cannot distort the average life expectancy and mean years of schooling from typical value
countries have different rank positions for HDI and income per capita depending on political decisions (e.g. those that focus on output and military spending)
The Gender Inequality Index (GII) combines reproductive health of women, their participation in the workforce and empowerment to measure gender-based development.
reproductive health combines maternal mortality ratio and adolescent fertility rate - indicator of women’s status in society
empowerment is measured by political representation in parliament and women’s access to higher education (secondary and above)
participation measures percentage of women of working age in labour force
measured on a scale from 0 (no inequality) to 1 (most unequal) (so opposite to HDI)
compiled by the United Nations Development Programme since 2010
modern western culture values increased inequality as an improvement, but the validity of this is debated (harmony with natural and religious systems, social harmony, roles of men and women?). This indices focus on social development AND economic development and are usually viewed as a better reflection of development progress.
environmental indicators measure development:
WHO air pollution levels = these tend to be local, i.e. for specific cities, so can’t be used to compare countries.
Air pollution = harmful substances into atmosphere, e.g. SO2, NOx, volatile organic compounds. Linked to respiratory diseases (lung cancer, asthma) and heart attacks.
Yale University’s Environmental Performance Index measures countries’ overall environmental quality on a scale from 0 to 100, using both indoor air quality, particulate and nitrogen dioxide concentration.
Emerging countries with large secondary economic sectors score poorly.
3.7b Trends in widening income inequality, globally and nationally (measured using the Gini Coefficient), suggest globalisation has created winners and losers for people and physical environments between and within developed, emerging and developing economies.
A 2016 report from Oxfam stated that the wealth of the world’s richest 1% of people is equivalent to the wealth of the other 99%. This degree of income inequality is not new, but may have become starker in the last few decades. Within countries inequality is measured using the Gini coefficient with income divided into quintiles (20% intervals) plotted as a Lorenz curve.
Haiti is the most unequal country as the richest 20% of people have 65% of the wealth, compared to 36% in Sweden.
Mexico is in between with the richest 20% owning 55% of wealth.
Winners:
There were about 1800 billionaires worldwide in 2016; most have made their wealth through ownership of global TNCs
Developed countries are very good at maintaining their wealth, despite the rise of emerging countries e.g China
The rising middle class of factory and call centre workers in Asia, whose incomes have risen as they have gained outsources and offshored jobs.
People who work for TNCs in developed countries who have a high income and reasonable job security, although they lead high-stress lives.
Losers
Isolated, rural populations in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa where subsistence farming still dominates and global connections are thin.
Workers (esp male ones) in old industrial cities in the developed world who have generally lost jobs.
Workers in sweatshop factories in emerging countries; they suffer exploitation (but may still be better off than in the rural areas they migrated from)
Slum dwellers in developing world cities like Lagos, as the reality of urban life is often much worse than they expected.
3.7c Contrasting trends in economic development and environmental management between global regions since 1970 indicate differential progress that can be related to the outcomes from globalisation.
The environmental impact of development and globalisation is often measured using an ecological footprint, a measure of the resources used by a country or person over the course of a year, measured in global hectares.
One way of measuring economic development is using income per capita.
Comparing trends between China and Sweden:
Sweden’s income per person has risen hugely, but it’s ecological footprint has not (about 8 hectares per person in both 2012 and 1972) = this suggests that economic development in Sweden has not affected the quality of the environment and that environmental management maintains biodiversity, water and air quality.
China’s ecological footprint has steadily risen (about 1 hectare in 1970 to 3 in 2012), however it is still more than half less than Sweden’s.
Since 2001, rising Chinese incomes correlate with very large increases in ecological footprint ($3,180 PPP in 2001, and $15,500 in 2016). Likewise, Sweden’s PPP has risen from $29,710 in 2001 to $50,000 without very little change in ecological footprint.
This suggests that economic development in China has a very large environmental impact.
Some countries can take advantage of globalisation without damaging their environment whilst others cannot.
3.8c Some groups seek to retain their cultural identity within countries and seek to retain control of culture and physical resources (First Nations in Canada), whereas others embrace its economic advantages.
The First Nations are the original population of Canada, existing before European immigrants. They consist of Indian bands such as the Cree and Lenape.
How the First Nations of Canada attempts to retain its cultural identity and prevent it from being eroded by cultural globalisation:
An Assembly of First Nations promotes the rights and needs of First Nations at a national level within Canada.
After decades of being taught to be ‘Canadian’ in boarding schools, modern First Nation schools teach native languages and traditions.
Within Indian Reservation territories, bands are largely self-governing allowing them to make key decisions about their future.
Festivals and other meetings help preserve the First Nations tradition of oral histories and other traditions.
There are about 100 First Nations and Inuit Cultural Education Centres funded by the Canadian Government to preserve and develop First Nation cultures and traditions.
To some extent, tourism preserves some aspects of First Nation culture, but also dilutes it.
The Fort McKay First Nation (mainly Cree and Dene peoples) in Alberta negotiated a 20 km exclusion zone between its Moose Lake Reserve lands and any oil sand extraction.
They also negotiated contracts for First Nation companies to provide $100 million p.a. services to oil extraction companies operating in the traditional hunting areas of the Athabasca region.
